For several weeks now my muscle twitching has reduced and become very minor. The muscles in my arms and legs continue to hurt if squeezed but seem to me sort of OK. My doc increased my Doxy dose to 200 mg twice per day. Last week however I spend several days with a pins and needles feeling in my legs and before it was over one arm was also included. It started several days earlier with a pins and needles feeling after I would get out of the car or getting up from a chair. Then it was more and more common until last Tuesday it never went away even when laying in bed. One of my docs recommended a doubling in my potassium chlorite prescription and I started taking magnesium after a day or so and it has decreased, and now is only occasionally bothersome.

Has anyone else had this? Don't know if the things helped or if it was co-incidence.

The pain in the sides of my back are now intermittant and my gut feels better.

Yes, I had pins and needles while on doxy. I also had sensations like cold water was being thrown on my arms and hands. For me, it was a side effect of the doxy. It stopped when I switched meds.

Be careful of the sun when on doxy, you will burn easily even with sunscreen on. Also do not drink milk or take calcium or magnesium at the same time that you take doxy as the minerals may bind to it and make it less effective. Also, do not lie down within half an hour of taking doxy because it could burn your esophagus if you do. This is extremely painful when it happens.

Thank you for the reply. This may be true in my case also. However, my last CHEM7 test showed I was really really low in Potassium. Now on 40 MeQ per day. 20 in the morning and 20 in the evening. This seems to have stopped most of the tingling and pins and needles.

For several weeks now my muscle twitching has reduced and become very minor. The muscles in my arms and legs continue to hurt if squeezed but seem to me sort of OK. My doc increased my Doxy dose to 200 mg twice per day. Last week however I spend several days with a pins and needles feeling in my legs and before it was over one arm was also included. It started several days earlier with a pins and needles feeling after I would get out of the car or getting up from a chair. Then it was more and more common until last Tuesday it never went away even when laying in bed. One of my docs recommended a doubling in my potassium chlorite prescription and I started taking magnesium after a day or so and it has decreased, and now is only occasionally bothersome.

Has anyone else had this? Don't know if the things helped or if it was co-incidence.

The pain in the sides of my back are now intermittant and my gut feels better.

I hate this infection..

Pins and Needles, Tingling Feelings, Burning Sensations...."crawly" feelings..etc... are all really common with Lyme.

It is called Parasthesias which is medically defined as : abnormal sensations such as numbness, prickling, or "pins and needles."

ALSO many people with Lyme have what is called Peripheral Neuropathy, which is defined as: damage to the peripheral nerves (usually involving the feet and hands) characterized by pain, tingling, numbness, and damage to the nerves in the peripheral nervous system which includes nerves that run from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.

Treatment that is given is sometimes Neurontin or even an antidepression for Neuropathic pain....Neurontin can have some weird side effects though (I got severely dizzy and eye spasms on Neurontin).

These feelings are random...they come and go at any time...and can be isolated to one hand...or both legs...one finger..etc...its REALLY ANNOYING

I have been given Cymbalta, Neuronitn, Lyrica, Gabapentin, and Cesamet to try and relieve the Parasthesias...

I have the twitching and pins and needles. I was on doxy, too, for a few months, but my doctor said this is just "maintenance", and that you need other antibiotics to really clear the infection, so she put me on doxy, amoxycillin, and rifampin, then I think we are going to something for the bartonella.

Anyhow, I think these are all neurological symptoms from what I can gather, and thats part of the reason it is so hard to treat, because the infection has crossed the blood-brain barrier and is really deep seeded. My pins and needles come and go, and I guess there is also some kind of monthly life cycle of the spirochettes that bring on some of the symptoms. I did go off the doxy for a few weeks and onto bactrim, but I had my doctor switch me back because I felt like I was getting worse, although she says thats to be expected when you are getting treatment, due to the "flares" that are actually a process of healing I guess.

Also, the water feeling is a side effect of the doxy - its the sensitivity to the sun, and it does cause burning. I dont think the pins and needles is a side effect, though. Not for me, anyhow. Those are the symptoms I had before I was diagnosed and wasnt on any medicine.

I hope you are feeling better soon - you might need some help from medicine to get there, though, if you are not on any now. I guess there is a possibility that these things do become residual, too, Im not really sure about that part.

I am wondering if anyone has or had a feeling like paralysis. I had both arms go completely numb on me twice (I could feel in them but could barely lift them), and also felt completely numb from the navel to the knees for about two weeks. At the time I was being treated by my GP, and he told me it was a combination of anxiety attacks and sciatica.

My neurologist gave me some kind of a nerve damage test on Tues. and I don't have any, apart from a very mild case of carpal tunnel which I had before all of this anyway. So I am assuming that these problems are from Lyme? They are not side effects from medication as I wasn't on any medication when it happened.

I'm on Lyrcia for the pin & needle feeling and the neck pain, the stuff is my new BEST FRIEND, works great for it.

Doxy made my hand and legs go numb and I got the pin and needle feeling on it, this was 4 years ago for another problem I had. Doctor made me go off it because of it. Doxy can do damage to the nerve ending that can't be repaired.

Pins and needles feeling has almost completely gone away from me. Seem to be recovering from what ever it was. Went from numbness to pins and needles to just a little pain in the legs. The last stage of the pins was about 2 weeks ago. No pins unless I 'thupmed' on my legs or someone 'thumped' on my spine then I could feel it cascade thru my body. Not really painful and I did not feel it was getting worse (I was not frightened). Anyway that slowly faded and now if I can just get over the leg pain I will feel back to normal.

Oh and now I must get fit again as with all the symptoms I have spent a lot of time in bed and I suspect that it is possible the leg pain is from that. (They still feel week).

One of the things that made me feel I was getting better was that I could feel hot water on my legs. For many months I could not really tell if bath water running on my legs was hot or cold. Cold did make my legs hurt and hot did eventually make my legs uncomfortable but the skin could not tell the difference. (hands and body could tell). That came back about a month or two ago.

Thanks for all the input and I will keep posting from time to time and ket all know my progress.

OK it has been a year since the onset of my symptoms. The three months of Doxy seemed to do the trick. The only thing is now I hurt in my joints such as ankles, knee, hip, arms and fingers. But the pain is not really bad and nothing comnpared to the pain I felt when I was sick, well. Anyway it would appear that the sore muscles and tingling and everything have been cured with the Doxy and probably six months after the end of the doxycyclene befor all symptoms went away. They went away very slowly. But they are gone!!! My first doctors did not really believe there was a problem but the neurologist in Jonesboro AR believed and fixed the problem.

I am wondering if anyone has or had a feeling like paralysis. I had both arms go completely numb on me twice (I could feel in them but could barely lift them), and also felt completely numb from the navel to the knees for about two weeks. At the time I was being treated by my GP, and he told me it was a combination of anxiety attacks and sciatica.

My neurologist gave me some kind of a nerve damage test on Tues. and I don't have any, apart from a very mild case of carpal tunnel which I had before all of this anyway. So I am assuming that these problems are from Lyme? They are not side effects from medication as I wasn't on any medication when it happened.

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Writeart

I had an EMG/NCV test last year (just for lower body- my hands were tested several years ago) and supposedly my nerves are fine. (I went in then, because my big toe on my right foot is partially numb). I've already been told I have PN, though. And I have had a few instances where my arm (and entire side of body) went completely numb. I went to the ER because my neuro thought it might be a stroke.. One of the times it happened, it messed up my "cycle". I basically stopped just as I was starting, and it showed up a month later. This happened before abx treatment, but while I was transitioning from Topamax to Elavil. It happened again a month later when I was off both. I think the worst was when I woke up in Nov of 2000 and my left arm (the one I have most problems with) was in such pain, that I couldn't move it. It was practically useless for weeks.

I would assume in my case, it's probably Lyme, too. Unless there is something else going on that has yet to be discovered...